Taste Great At Billy Goat

July 01, 1997|By Rick Hepp, Tribune Staff Writer.

Thousands of customers at this week's Taste of Chicago, disoriented from the crowds and teary-eyed from barbecue smoke, perked up when they heard the far-off cry more familiar than their mother's call for dinner . . . "Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger, double cheese, double cheese."

Touched by nostalgia, people walked up to the yellow and white tent located on the north side of the festival and knowingly asked, "What's good here?"

As one woman said, "I just like to hear them say it like they did on Saturday Night Live."

But if that were the only reason people came to the Goat, as it's affectionately called by patrons, would it still be popular?

"People come back because of the high-quality food I serve," said Sam Sianis, owner of the Billy Goat Tavern and inventor of the cheeseburger slogan. "We have been at the Taste for 17 years, since it was the Chicago Festival on Navy Pier in 1979."

Hoping to learn the intricate art of making the double cheeseburger, I went to the Billy Goat tent to work alongside the staffers who will serve up more than 40,000 cheeseburgers during the Taste.

The tent was all bustle as four cooks manned two ultra-hot grills and another five people took orders and yelled to passers-by: "Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger, double cheese, double cheese."

One of the workers was Bill Sianis, a 22-year-old architecture student at the Illinois Institute of Technology who works weekends at his father Sam's tavern. He gave me my official Taste gear, a navy blue baseball cap and orange T-shirt. I looked as ready to play right field on the Billy Goat's softball team as I did to cook.

Under Bill's tutelage, I learned the tricks of the trade.

For instance, after throwing the 60 patties on the grill, you have to wait until the burgers start bubbling before flipping them. And when it's time, circle the burger's edge with the spatula to get under the patties. That keeps the burger from ripping apart.

After flipping, it's time to cheese. In the tradition of the best "cheese bitches," as the Billy Goat staffers call the person applying the cheese, I stood behind the grill for the best cheese-dealing angle.

When the cheese melts, you then double up the burgers and put them in the untoasted bun. The sandwich is then wrapped for sale.

Total cooking time for 60 cheeseburgers -- about three minutes.

Total time it took me to sell one cheeseburger, including yelling "cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger, double cheese, double cheese" -- about three seconds.

If you want to avoid the Taste (and with all the crowds who can blame you) but not the cheeseburgers, you can go to these Billy Goat locations: